KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 24 October
God will provide himself
Two outstanding and profound stories were read in Chapel this week. The first was the intentionally disturbing story of the binding or sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. The second was the revelation of God to Moses in the burning bush. Both stories relate to the theme of covenant which we have exploring.
The story of Cain and Abel shows us what human existence looks like on our own without law and order, without an ethical principle. The theme of covenant develops from the Noahic covenant symbolized in the sign of the rainbow apres le deluge, to the Abrahamic covenant of the promised land and promised son, and then to the Mosaic Covenant expressed in the Ten Commandments. The revelation of God to Moses as “I am who I am” is the basis of that covenant. The idea of covenant is rooted in the nature of God who is utterly incommensurable in relation to human experience and life.
That is the strong take-away point of this most disturbing story where Abraham is tested by God, a test of faith, by being asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, the promised son through whom “all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves.” It seems perfectly horrible and barbaric and raises a conflict between our relation to God and our ethical obligations towards one another. Yet it does so in order to place the ethical upon its proper divine foundation. That it does so in such a troubling and challenging way is part of the intensity and the point of the story. I fear that we are often only too complacent about it and fail to feel its deeper significance.
A covenant is not the same thing as a contract though it reveals the principle upon which all contracts ultimately depend. Two parties contract with each other about what each owes to the other. That presupposes a principle of rationality, an ethical principle about being held accountable to our words. That principle is presupposed and is prior to us. We don’t create it; we can only recognise it or assume it. The covenant, on the other hand, is that principle as established by God which then informs and underlies the possibility of our ethical duties and obligations towards one another.